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The past few weeks I've been working on my awesome Bobamaker armor and have been EXTREMELY happy with the results. I feel that with the experience I've gained painting up my bucket, I've gotten a better grasp of not only how to effectively use the airbrush, but how to get MUCH more accurate stenciling done.

But this won't just be an ordinary WIP thread. I'd really like to share a "tutorial", if you will, of how I got the stenciling just right, and how I add in every little detail I can possibly see using the hundreds of reference photos from the Art of Star Wars Museum exhibit. Also, a BIG thanks to terminalfettlter for suggesting the colors. So, lets get started:

Now, before we can trace from our computer monitors, we have to obviously scale our reference pictures to our armor's size. One thing I will give Bobamaker credit for is that his armor dimensions are very close to what you see in the reference pictures, thus making this part of the job very easy. I use whats called a "micrometer" at my workplace. Being in the Old Guard, our unit has to have our dress uniforms absolutely PERFECT in regards to the measurements of where our awards and unit ciations are placed. This 6 inch stainless steel ruler measures at both 1/32 and 1/64 if an inch, so this thing is SUPER accurate. I believe you can pick them up at lowes.

So, using photoshop, you get your reference pictures scaled to how big your armor is by measuring your armor's sides and then how it sizes up on the monitor. NOW we're ready to trace!

Cut out a small piece of tracing paper, and use painter's tape (won't leave residue on your monitor) to attach it over the section you wish to trace. Then, using a drafting pencil, CAREFULLY trace the OUTER portion of the damage, on the line. Now the reason I say trace the outer portion is so you don't overlap the actual image, thus making it smaller when you transfer it.

Next, match up the stencil to your armor, and by using your trusty micrometer measure out where the distance is from the top/side of the damage to the edges of the armor. This will gauge proper placement/positioning of the tracing to get the most accurate stencil:

So how are we going to transfer that image onto our armor? Well, I believe I've found a method that gets you probably the most accurate results. Its called "Graphite Transfer Paper", and I found this at PEARL arts and crafts. I'm sure they have this stuff at most Michael's and other art stores:

Before I was using the trace method where you would trace the image from your monitor, flip the paper, trace over that with a pencil, and then flip it over AGAIN. Not only are you already 2 traces away from the actual image, creating a less accurate representation of it, but half the time the transfer won't even APPLY! Not with this stuff. This graphite paper will give you a guaranteed transfer EVERY time, and plus, it cuts stenciling time in half!

So once you have your trace in position, CAREFULLY hold it in place while sliding the graphite paper (dark side down of course) underneath. This ensures you don't lose you're spot on the armor:

Now, tape them BOTH down so that when you trace its secure:

Now here's the key part to transfering...trace just outside the lines. Why? Because if you trace the lines exactly, you're actually making the transfer smaller than what it really is. Plus, when you have to use the masking fluid to mask up the silver layer, you need to stay inside the lines which will make it smaller to begin with. Hope that made sense.

And voila! A perfect transfer of the damage you just traced from your monitor!

Now just spend the next few hours obsessively scaling your armor and tinkering with the proper placement of the damage stencils, and mask off all that silver damage. Don't worry about the tiny scratches and nicks, those will be scratched through using a compass needle or small paintbrush:

Don't overwork yourself too hard...

That's it for now. I'll post up my progress with the yellow a bit later. Hope this was able to help a few guys out starting their armor. I'm really striving for perfection on this piece folks, and from experience with this I can tell you that getting EVERY detail perfect is nerve-racking. But, I think it'll be worth it in the end.

When the masking fluid dried I applied my yellow coat. I used what was called Line Stripe Yellow, made by rustoleum. I saw it used on this board by another member, and figured I would give it a try since the Humbrol no. 99 yellow in my opinion came out WAY too light of a yellow and didn't really match up the reference pictures that well. Perhaps it wasn't mixed quite right.

The Line Stripe Yellow came out to be what I call "Camero Yellow", and when I applied the green layers, it looked like Pumpkin Orange. I went over the yellow areas with Testors Yellow Zinc Chromate, which I think is a dead-on color. So folks...use Testors Yellow Zinc Chromate. Here's the yellow (before the Yellow Zinc Chromate):

Now its time to apply the Humbrol 78 green. This is the light green damage that's seen pretty much only on the left chest plate at the very top:

I honestly could not find this any where else on the armor judging by the reference pics for AOSW. The MOM armor has the light green scattered all over the armor, mostly the ab plate. Mask that damage.

Next we'll apply a layer of Humbrol no. 76 green to JUST the ab plate. There's an area of green that looks to be chipped in the center, and we'll use that for underneath. Trace the damage from your monitor and apply it using DARK graphite paper. Once that's done, apply a HEAVY coat of masking fluid to the chip damage. What this does is it encourages the main color of the armor (US MED Green) to thicken up around the area so that when you peel off the masking fluid, it looks chipped. Mine is on the left, the right is the AOSW piece:

*NOTE*: When you use the 0000 wool wire to buff the armor, DO NOT go over the chip damage. It's supposed to look as raised from the armor as possible, and buffing it will only smooth it down.

Once you have that masked off, its time to apply Testors US MED Green. I felt that was the closest paint color to the actual main armor color than any of the humbrols, and it was the one I liked the best. Here's some pics:

Now that we have the armor about 90% done paint wise, its time to get it looking like the scuffed, burnt, scratched, and down right abused pieces of protection that our favorite bounty hunter dons. I'm going completely by what I see in the AOSW exhibit pictures, taking no "free liberties" of making it any more damaged than what it should be. I'm going for complete screen accuracy here folks.

You'll notice on the ab plate there's little indented scratches that go relatively deep into the armor. What you'll need to do is trace the scratches, use the DARK graphite paper to transfer them, and then smoothly and carefully use your compass needled to deeply gouge that scratch in.

NOTE: These scratches will then be painted over very carefully, in the lines, with US Med Green straight from the bottle. It definitely gives it that deep cut appearance, just like the actual armor. Mine's on the left:

Stand by for weathering soon guys. That's actually where I'm at now, and I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Awesome job Bro, Im trying this myself but couldnt find the carbon paper. A trick I used to use for forging my moms signature in gradeschool works just as good tho. Simply flip the traced image and scribble with pencil on the back of the tracing then do the transfer. Works great and you dont need to slip the carbon paper behind the trace paper.

Awesome job Bro, Im trying this myself but couldnt find the carbon paper. A trick I used to use for forging my moms signature in gradeschool works just as good tho. Simply flip the traced image and scribble with pencil on the back of the tracing then do the transfer. Works great and you dont need to slip the carbon paper behind the trace paper.

For my helmet I was using a similar technique, but the problem was, not only was it sometimes hard to distinguish where to trace since you have a scribbled mess on the other side to leave the imprint, but also it wouldn't always transfer. Nothing more frustrating than spending a solid 5 minutes tracing a stencil only to see half of it transfered!

I don't know how they do it, but the graphite paper was designed in such a way that you get a guaranteed transfer EVERY time. And since you're tracing the exact stencil on a white background (the reverse of the graphite paper) there's no guessing.

Been a while since I've posted, as I've been super busy with Army stuff ( I leave for WLC next week ). I'm just about there with my armor, so lets pick up where I left off:

You'll notice that on the screen used armor there are areas that are "worn" and "weathered" with some earth tones. It's VERY subtle:

Lets start by rubbing some brown pastel's (the chalk type) on the areas of our armor we want affected:

Next we'll use a soft rag (old t-shirt) to run the pastel into the armor:

Should look somewhat subtle:

Once you apply further weathering and the semi-gloss clear coat, it'll look MUCH more natural.

As you know by looking at all of the AOSW pics, there's what I call "flecks" of black paint scattered all over the armor. I've tried a lot of techniques on scrap pieces of plastic, and I'm almost positive the original suit was done by taking an airbrush and in short, fast bursts of the pain-brush were shot and FLICKED upward. This gave a general mist (super tiny-dots) as well as the black globs that are much larger.

Of course, me being the perfectionist I am, I decided to replicate ALL of the bigger flecks, and give a general mist with a toothbrush lightly soaked in black acrylic paint towards the areas that need it. I used my thumb to sweep across the bristles and it gave a very screen accurate effect. Here's the result:

Underneath the top dark area, I used a dark brown pastel as a base, with the misting on top. Here's some comparison pics of the AOSW armor and my attempts at replicating those fine weathering details:

Super-detailing the chest diamond:

Now comes the decals. For the chest, I simple gave it a "high-mist" treatment. Essentially, I used black rattlecan paint since it gives off relatively inconsistent mists, spraying over the decal a good foot above it. I waited 10 minutes for it to dry up a bit, then used an exacto to LIGHTLY scrape some of the areas that showed the original decal. I scratched a little deeper in areas that needed it:

As you can see, theres a faded white "ring" surrounding the rim of the crest. I used a white water-soluable pencil to carefully edge it. Then, with a barely moist Q-tip, went over it and then wiped it dry. This will fade it out, and make it less pronounced.

Next up was the shoulder skull decal. I gave it a base layer of Tamiya red-brown found in a rattlecal. On top of that, I coated it with a fine layer of black. Used the same Exacto knife method.

*NOTE*: Apply the weathering to the decals before transfering them onto the armor. You can clearly see that the decals are separately weathered.

The black streak was created by rubbing a thick layer of black oil pastel onto a rag and carefully smearing it in the right spot. I'm still not finished with it yet.

Once you're done with all of the weathering, it's time to add the gray streaks that you can faintly see all over the armor. I used Humbrol #23. Perfect match for me.

And here's an almost finished armor. This has 2 coats of Testors Semi-Gloss Laquer which gives it an excellent finish and really protects it from unwanted nicks and scratches. I'm going to give it a bit more weathering in some minor spots before I decide to finally seal it with one last coat:

Should update soon. Working on the cod piece, butt-plate, and knees as we speak.